Related papers: On the cross-section of Dark Matter using substruc…
Direct evidence for the existence of dark matter and measurements of its interaction cross-section have been provided by the physical offset between dark matter and intra- cluster gas in merging systems like the Bullet Cluster. Although a…
If dark matter interacts, even weakly, via non-gravitational forces, simulations predict that it will be preferentially scattered towards the trailing edge of the halo during collisions between galaxy clusters. This will temporarily create…
(Abridged) We compare recent results from X-ray, strong lensing, weak lensing, and optical observations with numerical simulations of the merging galaxy cluster 1E0657-56. X-ray observations reveal a bullet-like subcluster with a prominent…
The observed surface densities of dark matter halos are known to follow a simple scaling law, ranging from dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters, with a weak dependence on their virial mass. Here we point out that this can not only be used to…
Dark matter (DM) self-interactions have been proposed to solve problems on small length scales within the standard cold DM cosmology. Here, we investigate the effects of DM self-interactions in merging systems of galaxies and galaxy…
We compare new maps of the hot gas, dark matter, and galaxies for 1E0657-56, a cluster with a rare, high-velocity merger occurring nearly in the plane of the sky. The X-ray observations reveal a bullet-like gas subcluster just exiting the…
We have developed a machine learning algorithm capable of detecting ``out-of-domain data'' for trustworthy cosmological inference. By using data from two separate suites of cosmological simulations, we show that our algorithm is able to…
We perform numerical simulations of the merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56 (the Bullet Cluster), including the effects of elastic dark matter scattering. In a similar manner to the stripping of gas by ram pressure, dark matter…
Collisions between galaxy clusters provide a test of the non-gravitational forces acting on dark matter. Dark matter's lack of deceleration in the `bullet cluster collision' constrained its self-interaction cross-section \sigma_DM/m <…
Merging galaxy clusters have been touted as one of the best probes for constraining self-interacting dark matter, but few simulations exist to back up this claim. We simulate equal mass mergers of 10$^{15}$ M$_\odot$ halos, like the El…
We study how the internal structure of dark halos is affected if Cold Dark Matter particles are assumed to have a large cross-section for elastic collisions. We identify a cluster halo in a large cosmological N-body simulation and…
The unique properties of dark matter are revealed during collisions between clusters of galaxies, like the bullet cluster (1E 0657-56) and baby bullet (MACSJ0025-12). These systems provide evidence for an additional, invisible mass in the…
Astrophysical observations spanning dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters indicate that dark matter (DM) halos are less dense in their central regions compared to expectations from collisionless DM N-body simulations. Using detailed fits to DM…
We perform a general computational analysis of possible post-collision mass distributions in high-speed galaxy cluster collisions in the presence of weakly self-interacting dark matter. Using this analysis, we show that weakly…
We analyze strongly lensed images in 8 galaxy clusters to measure their dark matter density profiles in the radial region between 10 kpc and 150 kpc, and use this to constrain the self-interaction cross section of dark matter (DM)…
Self-interacting dark matter may have striking astrophysical signatures, such as observable offsets between galaxies and dark matter in merging galaxy clusters. Numerical N-body simulations used to predict such observables typically treat…
The balance of evidence indicates that individual galaxies and groups or clusters of galaxies are embedded in enormous distributions of cold, weakly interacting dark matter. These dark matter 'halos' provide the scaffolding for all luminous…
While dark matter self-interactions may solve several problems with structure formation, so far only the effects of two-body scatterings of dark matter particles have been considered. We show that, if a subdominant component of dark matter…
We constrain the physical nature of dark matter using the newly identified massive merging galaxy cluster MACSJ0025.4-1222. As was previously shown by the example of the Bullet Cluster (1E0657-56), such systems are ideal laboratories for…
In collisions of galaxy clusters, the lack of displacement between dark matter and galaxies suggests that the dark matter scattering depth is small. This yields an upper limit on the dark matter cross section if the dark matter column…